Book dossier

Noble Obsession

by Charles Slack

"The world had never seen such a substance. Bouncy, stretchable, and moldable - rubber seemed like the miracle stuff of the early nineteenth century. But a major problem soon became clear - it melted in summer and cracked in winter. It would take one obsessed genius - Charles Goodyear - willing to endure years of poverty, hunger, and imprisonment, to reinvent rubber into the indispensable substance it is today.". "Noble Obsession is the tale of how a single-minded genius risked his own life and his family's in a quest to unlock the secrets of rubber, and how Thomas Hancock, a brilliant English inventor, ruthlessly sought to claim Goodyear's discovery for himself. The story abounds with colorful historical figures of the nineteenth century including Rufus Choate and Daniel Webster, who came to Goodyear's defense in the courtroom.". "Goodyear suffered like few inventors before or since, and he pursued his invention with a passion that few could comprehend. Disappointments and frustrations alternated with false successes and crushed expectations. He begged from neighboring farmers to feed his family; he couldn't afford a carriage for his son's burial in the town's cemetery and he pawned his family's linen and books in order to finance his experiments. Through all of his adversity, though, Goodyear continued to work like a madman, constantly struggling to perfect his invention, until the day that he - almost by accident - found that he had invented the miracle substance that would change the world."--BOOK JACKET.